In the spring of 1969 the landmark corner of Yonge and Dundas was transformed by the largest and most exciting facade renovation in downtown Toronto up until that time. The brothers installed 11 back-lit sign boxes at the iconic Brown Derby building. The signs contained 254 fluorescent lamps and over a ton of plastic.
The concept was created by the architectural firm of Sheldon D. Rosen and the designer on the project was Lawrie Raskin, who became a long-time friend and colleague of the Markles. The Derby owners retained the architects to design a new building facade, expecting the usual architectural solution (aluminum modular panels, etc) but instead got more than 2200 square feet of super graphic. Five of the 15' square panels had images of Laurel & Hardy, Fatty Arbuckle, Toulouse Lautrec, Ben Turpin and Charlie Chaplin, each wearing a brown derby.
Up until that time architects were somewhat hostile to signmakers (believing that signs ruined their beautiful buildings.) This collaboration between the Rosen office and the Markles began a new era of co-operation with architects that continues to this day.
At a recent "Lunch-N-Learn" at an architects office (where the combined age of the 10 attendees was perhaps 140), Jack showed the group a photo of the project and asked if any of them had ever heard of the Brown Derby. None of them had.
